Everything gone wrong

Barys opened the score 10 seconds in, which turned out to be the fastest goal in KHL playoffs history. The black-and-white somewhat reestablished themselves when Alexei Kruchinin ran off for a breakaway, but could not beat Henrik Karlsson. Another breakaway led to the second goal of the game scored by Nigel Dawes. After that, hosts started collecting penalties one after another, and a double minor by young Vitali Kravtsov resulted in the third Barys goal. No one in their worst nightmares could have imagined such a horrible start to the first playoffs for Traktor in two years.

Early in the second, Brendan Shinnimin further increased the goal differential. This goal sent Pavel Francouz to the bench, and Vasili Demchenko was now in between the pipes. After this fourth goal, Barys predictably gave the initiative to Traktor, and the black-and-white looked pretty good. Unfortunately, nothing ever came out of it; contrary though, Barys converted a two-on-one breakaway opportunity into five nothing

The third period was a mere formality. However, Traktor decided to use this segment of the game to kind of bridge into the Friday game, and this objective was accomplished due to two goals, one of which was by Vitali Kravtsov, which, in turn, was his first KHL career goal and the youngest goal in the history of KHL playoffs. The series continues on Friday with game two.

Game details

TRAKTOR vs. BARYS – 2:5 (0:3, 0:2, 2:0)
Goals: Pushkaryov, 1 (0:1); Dawes, 7 (0:2); Boyd (Dallman, St. Pierre), 10 (0:3 – PP goal); Shinnimin, 22 (0:4 – PP goal); Markelov (Trivino, Panyukov), 33 (0:5); Kravtsov (Chernikov), 44 (1:5); Yuri Petrov (Koltsov, Kruchinin), 56 (2:5).

TRAKTOR
Francouz (Demchenko, 22);
Koltsov – Borodkin, Kruchinin – Szczechura – Yakutsenya;
Shinin (C) – Belov, Sharov – Pestunov (A) – Penkovsky;
Alexei Petrov (A) – Zhuldikov, Tridchikov – Novotny – Roy;
Klimontov – Mamayev, Chernikov – Yuri Petrov – Kravtsov.

BARYS
Karlsson;
Semenov – Dallman (A), Dawes (C) – Boyd – Pushkaryov;
Barker – Shalapov, Starchenko (A) – St. Pierre – Shinnimin;
Lipin – Savchenko, Markelov – Trivino – Panyukov;
Tryasunov, Ivanov – Kuchin – Khudyakov;
Gurkov.

Shots on goal: 38 (7+12+19) – 33 (12+13+8).
Faceoffs won: 32 (8+13+11) – 43 (16+12+15).
Shots blocked: 9 (4+2+3) – 9 (4+3+2).
Hits: 13 (6+4+3) – 10 (3+5+2).
PIM: 22 (12+4+6) – 10 (2+2+6).
PP goals: 0-2.
TOI: Borodkin (19:17), Novotny (18:31), Belov (18:00) – Dallman (26:12), Semenov (21:19), Boyd (18:33).

Referees: Sergei Kulakov, Artur Kulyov.
Linesmen: Yakov Paley, Alexander Sysuyev.

February 22, 2017. Traktor Arena n.a. Valeri Belousov, Chelyabinsk, Russia. Attendance – 7500.

Barys leads the series 1-0